


Of Strange Magic and Human Minds in Cat Bodies

by spilled_notes



Series: Mad March Prompt Challenge [3]
Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-05
Updated: 2016-03-05
Packaged: 2018-05-24 22:16:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6168727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spilled_notes/pseuds/spilled_notes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt "head scratches".  Being Borrowed by Granny can be quite a shock when the cat in question is actually a human.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Strange Magic and Human Minds in Cat Bodies

The first time Minerva ends up on the Discworld she appears in Lancre town. She senses magic all over this strange land, can feel it through her paws and taste it in the air, but it’s not any magic she’s familiar with. Deciding it’s safer to remain in her Animagus form until she can work out where she is and what’s gone wrong, she sets off in search of answers: if there’s magic here, then there must also be witches.

Nanny Ogg knows there’s something odd about the tabby cat sitting on her garden wall watching her cottage – partly because it’s sitting so still, but mostly because Greebo doesn’t try to a) have sex with it or b) kill it. The tabby stares down at him severely and Greebo doesn’t even hiss, just slinks past with his tattered ears flattened against his skull. When Nanny opens the door he shoots between her legs and hides under a chair, refusing to come out again.

Nanny walks up the garden path slowly. There’s magic around the cat, of that she’s sure, but she’s damned if she knows _what_ magic. She reaches out and tickles it behind its ears, cautiously probing its mind at the same time. She might not be as good at headology as Esme but even she can feel something odd. The tabby pushes its head against Nanny’s fingers; somehow, however, she gets the impression that it’s trying not to.

‘Didn’t Borrow a cat yesterday did you, Esme?’ Nanny asks when she sees Granny.

‘No. Why?’

‘No, didn’t think it was you,’ she mutters, frowning.

‘What, Gytha?’

‘Strange cat sat on my wall. Scared Greebo, poor thing hid under my chair all evening.’

‘Hmm.’

‘Looked like it was wearing glasses. I felt like I was being told off, had to draw the curtains. And, Esme? Its mind seemed, well, _human._ ’

*          *          *

The second time, Minerva finds herself in the woods near Granny’s cottage. There’s even more magic here, among the mountains: still not wand magic, but magic nonetheless. She stalks towards a concentration of it, towards a cottage she recognises from every book of Muggle fairytales: a witch’s cottage.

Granny senses her coming, senses a mind out of place and a magic she doesn’t know, and opens the door.

Minerva watches from the darkness. The old woman is unmistakably a witch, and a powerful one at that. She stalks closer, twines around the woman’s legs.

Granny looks down at her, sees the distinctive markings around her eyes. ‘So you’re the cat who terrified Greebo, then,’ she muses. ‘Must be something special about you.’

Granny doesn’t usually tolerate cats, but a cursory glance at this one’s mind confirms what Gytha said: it’s definitely not all cat, and it’s definitely infused with magic.

Minerva follows the witch inside, leaps up to curl in her lap and pushes her head against her hand; she scratches obligingly, until Minerva purrs. She feels a gentle, skillful probing at the edges of her mind, almost legilimency but not quite.

Granny is intrigued: there doesn’t appear to be any cat in this mind at all but that’s not possible, a human in a cat’s body. Still caressing its head she tries to Borrow its mind.

The shock is so great that Minerva changes back, and Granny suddenly finds her lap full not of tabby cat but of a woman, clearly a witch, in long black robes and with her hair in a bun almost as tight as Granny’s own.

‘Who the hells are you?’ Granny exclaims when she finds her voice.

*          *          *

The third time Minerva appears, Esme discovers that human Minerva enjoys having her head scratched almost as much as cat Minerva does, arching her neck and pushing her head into Esme’s hand, almost purring when short fingernails scratch lightly against her scalp.


End file.
